| The Budapest Times Sunday, 10 August 2008 | |
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advertisements Immigration Office head Zsuzsanna Végh has denied that the brawl between Afghan and Somali asylum seekers, in which 13 people were injured at the refugee camp in Debrecen on 30 July, was the result of under-funding.
She underlined that the government spent HUF 855 million (EUR 3.62 million) on refugee services in 2007, and a further HUF 446 million (EUR 1.89 million) in the first six months of this year. Végh described as "exaggerated" recent criticism of the treatment of refugees in Hungary from the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees' regional representative, who complained of low-quality cooking, insufficient spending money and inadequate healthcare access. Asylum seekers receive free accommodation, three daily meals – with vegetarian, halal and children's options – and HUF 7,000 (EUR 29.62) spending money a month, as well as a one-off education subsidy for children and free language courses. Végh argued that tension often results from those without official refugee status being denied travel documents. This can mean long stays at Hungary's refugees camps in Debrecen, Békéscsaba or Bicske, when they had originally hoped to move on to Western Europe, she added. Source: The Budapest Times, Aug 10,2008 |